Ontario government downloading to cost city hall as much as $4M

Downloading from Queen’s Park is creating municipal budget pressures so tight that London city council is looking for ways to give its own programs and services “a haircut.”

But as city hall’s top bureaucrat Martin Hayward put it bluntly during a Monday night committee meeting, politicians will have to decide if they’re looking to pull out the clippers for a trim or wrench “something out at the roots.”

Uncertainty was the word of the day, with city staff saying they’re still in the midst of calculating the costs that will be thrust on city hall as a result of provincial changes.

The price so far of ripple effects from the first budget under Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government, which has vowed to balance the province’s books, is $3 million and climbing.

That means a 2.7 per cent average tax hike over the next four years — equivalent to an extra $82 a year on the property tax bill of an “average” Londoner with a home assessed at $241,000 — that was recommended by staff is now just barely covering city hall costs, and wouldn’t include cash for any new council projects or priorities.

“The game has clearly changed,” Mayor Ed Holder said Monday, describing the 2.7 per cent hike as something of a guidepost, and telling his colleagues, “We can only do what we can do.”

London city hall will be forced to pick up the slack in some areas, like public health, where Ford’s government has slashed funding. City treasurer Anna Lisa Barbon told politicians the hit could eclipse $4 million a year.

Council, sitting as committee, votes 12-3 to endorse 2.7% average annual tax hike from 2020-2023. This is a target for staff at this point, not a final decision on your property tax hikes for the next 4 years, #LdnOnt. (There will be a series of debates in early 2020 to do that.) pic.twitter.com/GhFk7SSy5S

Holder is one of 27 big city mayors who slammed the province’s recent cuts as “downloading by stealth,” demanding a delay in their implementation and more consultation with municipalities in a letter last week.

The impact of the provincial downloading cast an obvious tone of concern over Monday’s budget talk, intended to be an early look at the 2020-2023 multi-year budget, which won’t be tabled until December.

Council, sitting as the strategic priorities and policy committee, voted 12-3 to endorse a 2.7 per cent target as a direction for staff in the interim, with councillors Steven Hillier, Phil Squire and Paul Van Meerbergen opposed and all others in favour. Politicians also voted 14-1 to set another meeting of the committee of the whole to weigh up possible service cuts.

The recommendations are expected to be rubber-stamped Tuesday at council.

“I was leaning more to mirroring inflation (for the tax increase) . . . but now we’re at inflation to just tread water,” Ward 8 Coun. Steve Lehman said.

“While we’d all like it to be lower, I don’t think there’s a reasonable way we can expect it to be lower.”

Several councillors pointed to the “hard questions” council will be asking itself during budget debates, stressing that 2.7 per cent is, for now, just an initial target for planning.

“Nobody is going to come in at the target if we can come in under the target,” council’s budget chair Josh Morgan said.

To be clear, motion means council will discuss specific areas to review for cuts at a future SPPC meeting.Turner says one meeting is not enough. Earlier tonight, he pointed to 2018 citizen satisfaction survey where #LdnOnt residents said they'd prefer tax hikes>reduced services.

But as politicians fret about the provincial cuts and their impacts on London, others were adamantly opposed to even a 2.7 per cent hike. Van Meerbergen said raising taxes “cannibalizes our own community” by reducing the amount of disposable income Londoners have to spend.

“When we start pulling extra dollars out of pockets . . . that income is no longer available to circulate in our local economy.”

BY THE NUMBERS

2.7%: The tax hike required just to keep pace with city services, with no new council projects or priorities.

$30: The real-dollar value of a one per cent tax hike.

$82: The hit to an “average” taxpayer with a home assessed at $241,000 with average annual tax hikes of 2.7 per cent over the next four years.

3.2%: The tax hike required to make some headway on council’s strategic plan, a road map for the term, which includes 159 goals.

49%: The portion of the city’s roughly billion-dollar budget made up by city hall departments, all of which were scraped for efficiencies and other budget savings during the 2016-2019 multi-year budget.

31%: The portion of city budget made up by boards and commissions, such as the London Police Service, London Public Library and London Transit Commission, which have not yet been the target of “deep dives” to find savings.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.